Trick-or-Treat Street

Annick, Sophia, Shawn, Z and our family all went to trick or treat street at the Children's museum yesterday afternoon. At one point, all the babies in our little group were going to be different Peanut Characters (Sofi is Lucy, Dylan is Linus, LT is Charlie etc), however due to various problems getting costumes or already having a costume, the idea sort of faded with the exception of a few. Regardless, LT made a great Charlie Brown.

The first thing we saw when we walked into Trick-or-Treat Street was this sign saying, "There are peanuts on this premises". While we know the sign was there for another reason, we saw it as very fitting for our little group (who by the way has yet to be all together this Halloween season due to nap schedules and work schedules).

LT and Z went searching for the pumpkin they wanted in fields of hay.And LT found the one he wanted!
But wasn't quite strong enough to pick it up and so we moved on.
The outdoor area of the museum had been transformed into a little activity center. LT found a bucket of water and we probably could have stayed and played in that bucket the whole day. It was technically a fishing pond with magnetic areas on the end of the fishing line and on the fish. The problem was that they made the pond out of a metal bucket and so the fishing line stuck to the bucket instead of the fish. This didn't bother LT a bit and at one point he even tried to climb in for a swim.

We didn't have all the kids there for a picture like last year's halloween, but we did get a quick shot of three of the babes (LT, Z and Sophia).

Lil' Swimmer

LT started back up with swim lessons a few weeks ago. He really has come far with his skills and enjoys kicking fast and furiously to retrieve objects he has thrown. Unlike the old days when I could just lie him down to change him at swimming and take lots of pictures, his curiosity and love for the water (combined with his mobility) prohibits me from taking pictures safely. But... Bri took this one yesterday of him wearing my goggles, it will have to do.

Obama speech witnessed by LT (and about 100K others)

An estimated 100,000 people showed up Sunday at Denver's Civic Center Park...


To see LT and his chief economic adviser announce a comprehensive new set of economic policies.


There was some other guy at the park as well and he said a few words that the crowd seemed to respond to. He's in the picture above though it's hard to see because we were so far from the stage (in spite of showing up hours in advance). No, the shining light isn't *actually* him but you can see him just to the right of it if you zoom in and use your imagination a bit.



Somehow amidst the crowd we managed to meet up with the Fazendin crew. Trying to explain where we were on the phone was kind of tricky, "we're near a flag and next to a bunch of people with blue signs..." But we did find them as evidenced by the photo above. And to prove that it is a small world we ran into Brewster and Helen Boyd, my next door neigbors from when I was LT's age.

LT took a little nap while we waited for the big event to start. Mama held him while he slept and a nice woman lent us that blanket.


But the real heroes of the day (to me at least) were these two women. I didn't get a very good picture of it but they did a great job of boxing out the crowds and protecting Kari and LT while the little guy napped. And we never asked them or anyone for help - they just did it because they were nice people. Now that's the kind of real America that I want to live in.

Magic Touch

Brian and I have been wanting to try Felix, a local French restaurant, for a few months now. It is definitely not a baby friendly place and so I finally got up the nerve to ask my parents to come watch LT last night for date night. LT had a hard day with very limited nap time and was ready for bed pretty early. Luckily my parents got to our house about 4:45 and were able to read him one story before I put him down at 5. Somehow my mom has the magic touch with sleeping because LT went down at 5:05 and we didn't hear a peep out of him until after 6 AM! I don't know what she does, but it sure works.

Chubby Bunny

Bri doesn't remember playing this game as a child, but it is one of my funniest memories from camp. The game is played by each player putting a marshmallow (big one) in his or her mouth and saying chubby bunny. You repeat this, adding marshmallows, and not swallowing the old one and saying chubby bunny until a player can no longer say it or spits the marshmallows out. The last one with the most marshmallows in his or her mouth and still able to say chubby bunny wins. LT plays his own version. While he cannot say chubby bunny yet, but he sure loves to stuff as many Sesame Street crackers in his mouth as possible.

Sir Mix a lot

One, of many, of LT's nicknames is Sir Mix A Lot. This is how I manage to cook dinner.

Lil' Sweeper

LT is such a great helper these days....

Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin

Daddy plays hookie

On Tuesday, I convinced Bri to take an hour off of work and head to the Children's museum with LT and I to play in the "big kid" area. Occasionally it is fun for dad to play with us during the day, but then we lose him for a few hours in the evening so he can catch up on work. LT is a climber and they have this great ant colony with a perfect climbing zone for LT. It really is a little big for him, but he loves climbing, and with a little help can manage.
Hanging with mom inside the ant colony. There are a few buttons that can be pushed down under and it is slightly scary without mom to hold on to.Daddy helping LT climb up and out of the ant hole.
Stacking cups. We also took him to the carpentry section of the museum where you can really saw wood and hammer nails into wood. Due to the dangers LT could have encountered, we chose not to take footage.

Grandma and Baba time

LT is very lucky to have all four grandparents alive, healthy and living in Colorado. However, due to schedules, he doesn't see them as often as we all would like. He sees his Papa at least twice a week, but the grandma time is pretty infrequent. Last weekend, LT got to see both his Baba and Grandma and spend some time with them.
Grandma and LT at the Market.

Baba and LT pretending to ride the box of diapies like a horse.

Cookie playdate

Riley's mom, Emily, had Columbus day off and to celebrate, LT decided to have a mini playdate with Riley and a few other friends.
I made some cookies in my attempt to be a good hostess. I am not sure how many cookies LT ate, but I am pretty sure it was in the double digits (although most of those ended up in Bowen's tummy during clean-up patrol). This one might have been a "community" cookie between LT and Riley, I think there was a lot of that going on.

Mia came over, looking adorable as always.
Z and LT did some boy stuff, like building with pegs and watching TV together on Bri's office chair.

Boys and Moms on the Run

One of the classes at the Logan School (where I teach very part time) is called "Girls on the Run". They are often times just sitting around talking about girl stuff and the name has always baffled me. I know girls need their "girl" time, but I am not sure the class really defines the name. However, after our experience with three boys at common's park the other day it was clear to me that we could in fact start a class called "Boy's and moms on the Run". I am not sure the moms had a full conversation for more than a few seconds without one of us having to run off to chase one of the boys. The pictures below capture the few moments when the boys found something to entertain themselves and enabled me to take a quick photo. Mostly we just ran around!


Not sure what this new habit of LT's is, but he is often times found lying on his back on the ground. The playdate was the start of this trend, but he does it often at home as well.
The three boys found a wall, it was a race to see who could climb it. I don't think any of them actually made it up.


Isaac looking at me as if I was crazy for wanting a picture of him.

The three of them found this statue of a person lying face down (sort of disturbing if you ask me, but it was pretty interesting to the boys). With recent rain, the area around the person was filled with absolutely disgusting water, but we let them play in it anyway. Isaac wanted to swim, z drove his cars and trains along the side and LT threw Z's toys in the water while LT laughed hysterically and Z told him "no, no, no".
Unfortunately, as is usually the case, the hysterical laughing by LT and Z's telling LT to stop by saying "NO" had subsided by the time I got the camera out to take a video, but here is a small clip.

First Merry-Go-Round

LT and I met up with Altaira (her husband, Craig, works with Brian) and two of her three kids at the zoo yesterday. Her two year old wanted to ride the merry-go-round and before I knew it, Altaira had bought tokens for both of her kids and LT. Z tried a merry-go-round a few weeks ago and wasn't too syked about the ride. I was prepared for it to be a disaster for LT too, but he actually enjoyed it. He rode on a rhino that went up and down and then wanted to switch to the zebra. Due to the motion of the rhino, I didn't get any good pictures of him actually moving, but here are a few of the still zebra ride.

Fun 'til the very end

Dylan gave LT a really cool book about the ocean a while back. It had pop-up animals and made ocean sounds and was one of LT's favorites. Like all pop-up books LT was pretty hard on it and many of the animals were missing heads and other appendages. Because of this I didn't think the book would have an especially long life but I didn't anticipate its very untimely death at the jowls of Bowen.

The book proved to be a hit for LT even when ripped to pieces with cords hanging out. These pictures were taken moments before the great gift was put out to pasture for good.

Kite festival

Their website says that the "One Sky One World [kite festival] takes place Rain, Snow or Shine" and they were true to their word. It didn't actually snow on Sunday but one Stapleton resident and virtual friend sited the "cold and crappy" weather as reason for not attending the festival.

Thanks to his cousin [jacket] and Baba [hat] LT has lots of cold weather gear so we decided to brave the weather and head over to 'campus' to check out some kites. The picture above made me think of the stereotypical mountain climbing summit shot and I like to think of it as LT declaring his victory on Stapleton and the day's weather.


Mr. Serious pictured above.

LT is always pretty serious about new situations and has to take some time to figure things out. But on this day it didn't take long to relax and have some fun...



There are few things as wonderful as a young child's expressions of pure joy and excitement over things that we 'grownups' take for granted. We could learn something from these little guys.





















A cute picture of mom and baby. I guess baby isn't really the appropriate term anymore but it'll take me awhile to adjust. Mom and toddler? Yeah, it'll take awhile.

Unfortunately for me, I got sick (no idea, but don't think the weather played a part) and didn't really get to enjoy our lunch at the local Stapleton eatery, "Noodles and Company."

Count Diapula

In the mornings after a diaper change, LT is often in too much of a hurry to bother having his jammies zipped up (he's got stuff to do, you know?). So he ends up running around in his diaper with the feet of his jammies hanging out behind him like a cape.
Thus earning the new nickname, Count Diapula! And, as you can see from the picture above, he plays the part well.

One of Diapula's favorite activities is trying to surf on the toy truck.

Diapula also enjoys rolling around on the floor with the other mythical monster that lives in the 'plex.