John and Jack

John's first Jack-O-Lantern

Last night was trunk or treat at church. This morning I had to work through a tantrum and try to explain to John why we couldn't go trick or treating at 9am October 26. Unfortunately he hasn't been feeling very well, so he hasn't been having the best time with the holiday, but he's getting the idea and having lots of fun anyway. Tonight he carved his first Jack-O-Lantern. I think part of the problem was that he was sick and tired. He was grossed out by the insides and refused to touch them. Buck kept taunting him with the goo...I'll post pictures. John showed himself to be pretty smart, though. Buck tried to trick him into giving him five and getting goo on his hand, but John requested the other hand for a five. Smart kid. Anyway, we let him draw on the pumpkin, which he enjoyed, then let him help drill holes along some of his drawings, which he also enjoyed. He drew choo choo tracks, his favorite thing to draw. For some reason I can't post the pictures. I'll have to try on a separate post.

Fall Photo Shoot

Boo in the Zoo

Friday night John had his first trick or treat experience where he actually got candy (he didn't really trick or treat last year). The zoo puts up decorations and has people handing out candy and cheap toys. We thought it would be fun. We went on "members only" night. John wanted so badly to be spiderman, but they didn't have his size at Target. They only had his size as Venom, and he didn't want to be Venom. We went to Wal-Mart, and pickin's were even slimmer there, but we found a Superman that's just right. We figured if we talked it up enough, he'd warm to the idea. He actually wore the costume the other night when we went looking for a pumpkin. Anyway, John was a cute Superman and now knows that Superman can fly. I made a Wonder Woman costume for Eve, and it's awesome if I do say so myself. So we took our superheros to wait in a super long line. John was so amazingly patient! We practiced saying "Trick or Treat". He said it plenty of times to me, but I don't think he ever said it to anyone handing out candy. He did say Thank you, though. He was just mumbling it under his breath. After we passed someone I told him he needed to say it loud so they could hear it. He then yelled it at the top of his lungs. It was pretty funny. He kind of got the idea after we got about half-way through. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we still have trunk or treat at church and the real halloween, so I'm sure when all is said and done, he'll have a good grasp of getting candy and think we go trick or treating once a week. November will be such a let-down.
On the way home (or maybe on the way there) John started saying something that he's been repeating quite a bit. It sounds like "No, dee so". We finally figured out it's "No, I don't think so". He likes to say it when we say it's time for a nap, or he needs his diaper changed, or he needs to put his toys away...that sort of thing. It's not obedient, but funny.
Last night at church they said that John held his hands over his ears while they were singing in big group time. That made me feel better. I thought he just did that when I was singing!
Another cute story, yesterday we were watching the Clemson game. Buck got irritated with the announcers and said something was stupid. John quickly repeated it. Later in the day Buck hurt his hand moving the tractor off the trailer. John was helping and watching intently, so fortunately Buck remembered what happened earlier in the day, and decided to say "Daddy got a boo boo" rather than something more colorful. John immediately offered to kiss it. What a sweet boy!
Eve has only chuckled a few times. She doesn't even smile when tickled, much less laugh, so she's a tough one. At least she smiles a lot. This week she started grabbing faces a lot. She's still not rolling over a lot, but I guess she doesn't really need to. I think she's going to sit up early, or at least try. She's always trying to push herself into a sitting position when she's laying back on the couch elevated with pillows. She'd much rather be sitting or standing than laying back. There's a lot of action in our house...my guess is she either doesn't want to miss out on any of it or she needs to see it to defend herself.

John really enjoyed pumpkin hunting
"Too heavy". John says this a lot. We tried to coach him saying that nothing is too heavy for Superman. This is the pumpkin his chose, though. His first.

Great Superman pose. I knew teaching him football would come in handy...TOUCHDOWN!

WONDER WOMAN!!! (Boots and all)

My little super heros
John's first trick or treat

Pictures!

In no particular order...
John likes to play with Eve in her exersaucer. He drives cars around the edge. She actually likes playing with the cars! Check out those thighs! Both are very serious about their play in this picture.
Definitely one of John's favorite activities....under the bridge, over the bridge (we talk about that ALL the time in the car)

Buck caught this perfect picture at Fall for Greenville (a downtown festival). The bubbles were by far the best part.
Here is Eve with Tigger at 4 months. A big change from 2 days old!
She's such a smiley girl...and such a beautiful smile.
John's introduction to manhood...wearing the cheese hat, eating chips on the couch with Dad, watching football. For some reason, though, he is more excited about a first down than a touchdown. We've got a bit of learning to do.
Another thing John loves to do is paint outside. Two handed...not bad!
Clearly, after a while, there's less paint on the paper than anywhere else, but he's very serious about his art.

Here's one of John and Papa hiking last February. Still makes me smile...and cry a little too.

Mama's So Funny

Eve laughed today! I've heard her do something that I think was her version of laughing (sounds like a deep-throat gasp), but today she finally gave me a little chuckle. I know if Papa had a little more time with her, she would've been laughing long ago, and belly laughing by now. He was always the first to get a baby to laugh. She finally did it, though, and it was so fun to hear.
John has learned to pass blame on passing gas. We are such bad parents...we've made it such a laughing matter. I know that's going to come back to bite us. We have so much fun with it, though. We'll ask "Did you toot?" and John laughs and says "No, Mama toot" or "No, Daddy toot", or even better, he blames it on his little sister! He seems to throw her under the bus a lot. He was in a funk the other day. I thought he might be getting those 2-year molars in, but he said his mouth didn't hurt. Anyway, even after his nap he woke up in a funk, so I asked him if he had PMS. His answer (not having a CLUE what PMS is), "No not. John not PMS. Baby Eve PMS." Probably another one that will come back to bite me. It's only a matter of time before he asks me, or even worse, asks a teacher or nursery worker, or some random lady at the grocery store. He's tried to pass the blame on stinky diapers, but those are SO obvious, it's hard to convince anyone.

Some Things I Forgot

1. In Eve's defense, she probably could have learned to roll over much earlier, but I just always keep forgetting to let her spend time on the floor. It just seems so dangerous!
2. The other night on the way home from church I saw fireworks out my car window. I local business was having a large display at their carnival. John LOVED it! He could see the "pretty colors in the sky" and hear the quiet boom. Much better than 4th of July. Actually, he and Eve were super tired and both melting down as we put them in the car. I was definitely not looking forward to the ride home, so it was a fun surprise to pull over into a parking lot and enjoy that with him. He kept giggling and talking about it, and quietly saying "boom". It was a neat time together. Eve wasn't so crazy about it. She just wanted to get home and eat!
3. The other night I was putting John to bed. I was reading him a story and he just couldn't seem to get comfortable. He finally settled down leaning against me and started rubbing my back. How sweet is that?
4. This isn't our story, but I have to write it down anyway. Maybe one day we'll read it and tell Bella. At the very least, whomever reads this blog will get a laugh out of it. Bella always says the funniest things. We never now where she gets it, but she's hilarious. I was talking to Amy yesterday and she told me about this. Bella (will be 5 in January) put Amy's bra on the other day. She looked down and quickly determined "I'm going to take this trick-or-treating". Amy assured her it was a good idea...she'd be able to fit a lot of candy.

Car Conversations

John has really turned into a chatterbox in the car and says the funniest, and most amazing things. I think I've already talked about our spiritual conversations on the way home from church, Noah made the rainbow and such. This weekend John and Eve spent Saturday with Grandma while Buck and I went on a retreat with the 5th and 6th graders at church. I had taken John over to stay with Mom while I went to the PT Monday. I told him we were going to Grandma's house (he still says something that sounds like "brown" when he's saying Grandma) and Mama was going to the doctor. So, Saturday when I told him we were going to Grandma's house, he asked if Mama was going to the doctor. 5 days later! That's a lot longer memory than I've been giving him credit for. Most of the things he says in the car I can't remember, but it's typically really funny. He still asks where did everything go, I'm not sure how this got started. Some make sense (the other night on the way home from church he asked "where friends go", to which I replied "I don't know, where did friends go", to which he replied in a very matter-of-fact tone "home"...duh Mom), others don't make as much sense like "where bump bump over the choo choo tracks go", "where almost there go", "where not now go".
This wasn't in the car, but one day last week he pulled out his memory verse (at church they have them on an index card and we put them in a refrigerator magnet. they get a new one every few weeks) and carried it around all day. He was so proud of it, so we repeated it quite a bit. He can now say "Lord God merciful God" ("for the Lord your God is a merciful God"), not bad. To show his teachers that they were making a difference, I asked him to tell them what his memory verse said. After asking a few times, he screamed it at the top of his lungs. We've been combating the screaming for quite some time with no improvement, but I suppose if he's screaming scripture, we'll let it slide. The new verse is a proverb about being honest and has the word "treacherous" in it. I wonder how well he'll pick that one up. We may have to paraphrase.
John has also gotten to be frighteningly good on his Spiderman scooter. He can now push with one foot, then put both feet on and coast. He goes quite fast down the hill, goes backwards, makes tight turns, and even knows to jump off if he's going out of control.
Yesterday was Buck's birthday. John very carefully made him a birthday card. He put a lot of stickers on it, most of them on top of each other, then he tried to color on the stickers rather than the paper. I suppose we'll need to work on artwork. He does love painting, though. I'll have to post some pictures. Oh, he also picked out an Ironman balloon for Daddy's birthday. Somehow he got the idea that it was for him. Thank goodness Daddy is willing to share. He's really been loving that balloon.
Eve has rolled over once or twice before, but this morning she seemed to pick up on it a bit more. I think we're close to seeing her turn over intentionally. The funny thing is that she's almost always been able to scoot her body around from one direction to a perpendicular direction. Once she puts those together, we're really going to have to watch out...especially since John is helping her. We're still fighting her thumb. She's just determined to get it in her mouth! Every time I think I'm making ground with the pacifier, she pops it out with her thumb and replaces it. Sometimes she even hides it!

Goodnight Sweetheart

Poor John still isn't back to normal. His stomach is fine, but he's battling a nasty cold, and it's just making him clingy and whiney. Pitiful thing. It even made him ask to come inside when Scotty was outside. That NEVER happens. Anyway, the weather has been beautiful, and Buck has been making a few trips to their plant up in NC, so sometimes when figuring out supper is just too overwhelming, we have a picnic. What that means is that I stop as a drive-through and we eat in the driveway. I told John we were going to get food for a picnic. He got excited and asked, "outside? chocolate milk?". Funny what he associates. Of course, I couldn't let him down.
Eve worked on rolling over some more today, but still isn't really that close. She's still loving toys. When we were working with John on it, he'd follow the toy until his neck was so twisted he'd have to turn over. Eve follows it a little bit, then when it gets to be too far, she just turns to me and smiles. She really does have the greatest smile. She does that while she's nursing sometimes, too. It cracks me up, even when I'm in a hurry. She'll stop and look at me and grin (she does big open-mouth smiles), then nurse for just a second and smile again.
So, tonight Buck was in NC, and somehow I managed to get everyone bathed. It was time for John to get in bed, but Eve was fussing, so I told him I'd have to go get her. A while ago he would have had a fit, but the jealousy thing really does seem to be wearing off. She sat with us for story time and he put his head down in both of our laps. When it was time to lay down, sing, and say our prayers, I laid her down beside him and he snuggled with her and rubbed her head. It was so sweet. He wanted to make sure she folded her hands too when we prayed, that was funny. When it was time to go, he didn't want her to leave. He wanted to hold her. Another sweet time.