Our Pumpin Hatch Trip....

Despite the rain, it was a successful weekend to the pumpkin patch! I have a bunch of photos to post, but I'm having a hard time transitioning to the MAC computer so my posts for the next little while may be a little disjointed. I will try and add captions to the photos to help out...Dayton was SOOOOO excited to go to the "pumpin hatch" he kept asking over and over when we were going. When we first got there he said "wow cool, look at all the pumpins!" He immediately started running towards them and picked up almost every single one he saw. It was quite funny. Saige enjoyed tripping in the mud, putting her hands in rotten watermelons and trying to pick up big pumpkins. There were pony's to see, some cheezy kids rides, fresh fruit and veggies for sale and lots and lots of dirt....
Dayton at the house getting ready for the "Pumpin Hatch" by wearing his "Hawoween shirt."Saige loving being up on Daddy's shoulders!
Daddy & Dayton taking this picking the perfect pumpkin quite seriously.
Saige running in the mud and quite obviously enjoying herself.
This is Saige attempting to pick up a large pumpkin.
This is Dayton's 100th pumpkin to pick up and say "how about this one?"
Dayton carrying "the" pumpkin.

Getting Ready For Halloween

Finally, I can start celebrating holidays with Dayton...in previous years he was pretty terrified by most Halloween stuff, but this year (now that he is a big boy) he is excited to dress up and go to Halloween parties (we'll see if it actually happens). He points out all the scary stuff in the stores and says, "look at all the scary Hawoween things." If you ask him what he is dressing up as, he says, "my don't know." He's never had a piece of candy either, so I'm opening up a whole new can of worms by introducing this Halloween stuff! We've been doing crafts lately to help him understand a bit better and we decorated the house a little bit. We don't have hardly any Halloween decorations, but we'll accumulate some each year. Tomorrow I am taking both Dayton and Saige to a Halloween party. Saige will be dressed up and Dayton at this point, won't be.....his costume should have been here by Tuesday at the latest and it is now Thursday, so it doesn't look good! Then, this weekend Mommy and Daddy are taking the kids to the pumpkin patch! That should be an adventure...I didn't know the island even had one! I've heard it is very hot and dusty! It's quite a drive, so I hope it is all worthwhile...
Dayton proudly holding up his "shapes" ghost.
Dayton's version of what a pumpkin looks like! Personally I like the "cat" mouth.

Saige's New Skills

Saige has developed some signs of potty training readiness...she often comes to me carrying a diaper and package of wipes. Now she typically doesn't have a dirty diaper, but soon after bringing me those things I can usually smell something. I guess she is starting to recognize the "need" to go. Actually, she just came to me the other day and pointed at her diaper and say "poopoo"...and yes she had one! I was so impressed. However, I'm not so impressed that she is constantly taking her diaper off..take the picture below for instance...she is so proud and showing off her diaper removal skill and if you look hard enough or click on the picture to make it larger you will see her skill of peeing on the floor! And yes, she is saying "cheese" while she pees on my floor! On the flip side, Saige's other new skill is practicing her paparazzi pose and smile. She might not be wearing Chanel sunglasses but they do have cool snakes on them.

Our Attempt At A Family Picture

I've decided that I need to do a better job of getting family pictures or pictures of me with the kids for that mattter. I am always the one taking the pictures and it is easy to get into the habit of hogging the camera...not that Scott "likes" taking pictures, but I figure it is probably important that the kids grow up with "some" pictures taken with Mommy. So here is our painful attempt to get a family snapshot. The most impressive thing is that we are all looking at the camera and yes we are all saying "CHEESE".

I'm A Mother To A 3 Year Old Now....

I am still in shock that my baby boy is 3 whole years old...perhaps one of the several reasons why I've been avoiding posting party pictures on the blog. If I can just deny it a little bit longer...ok, who am I kidding?...he's a big boy now, I'm 3 years older and I just need to get over it. This is where you start to fudge the truth a bit when people ask...how old is he? And undoubtably it is during a tantrum in the middle of the grocery store...do you dare admit your boy is 3 when he is clearly acting like a two year old? Or do you say.."oh, he "just" turned 3"..as if to explain the reason for his behavior is due to his lack of experience as a new 3 year old. Actually, I was so excited for this birthday because Dayton has been talking about it for weeks and for the first time he was showing "anticipation". As I'm typing this, he is standing beside me singing "The itsy bitsy spider" while playing his new Ukelele. Every time we would ask him what he wanted for his birthday he would say "a party hat" or "a dog" or "a cow"....so he hasn't quite figured out to ask for "toys", but that is probably a good thing...he does know that "boxes" arriving via the mailman are typically "surprises" for him, so every day leading up to his Birthday he had been asking if there is a box for him. The morning of his Birthday, he crawled into bed with us (before the sun was up of course) and when I said Happy Birthday to him, he said "no, its not my birthday yet mama." Oh...I didn't realize. Then he asked where his boxes were hiding...and if he could eat some cake. I smiled. We spent the day at the Honolulu Zoo (which is nothing to speak of compared to the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans so you won't be "wowed" by my pictures) and on the way home Dayton said he was tired and wanted to nap. C'mon...nap? It's your birthday....mommy wants to eat cake and open presents. *sigh* Okay, nap first and then presents and cake. Here was our day....
We started our day with a yummy Cinnabon roll. No doubt this was Mommy's idea.

A picture of Dayton with Daddy at the zoo. The best seat in the house of course!

Mommy and Dayton at the zoo. It is fire prevention month so they were allowing kids to climb into the fire trucks and of course Dayton was not the least bit interested. He just wanted to know where the giraffeses (he is pluralizing everything these days) were.

The Rhino resting his mouth on the ground (is his horn really that heavy?). The giraffeses that Dayton kept going on about from the time we walked though the gates. Note to readers...graphic material...some giraffeses getting "frisky" in the background.

Then, on to the monkey section..who knew there were so many varieties. Is that Dayton hanging from the bar? For some reason they started screaming monkey talk when we came by...maybe they recognized the kids as some of their lost babies? We told Dayton they were singing Happy Birthday to him.

Some turtles...we did see some GIANT ones but they were all dirty and gross. Note to readers...more graphic footage..beware of turtles getting frisky in the background.

The elephants...of course they were quite stinky too, but Dayton was excited to see them. He kept saying "insert elephant sound here".

Dayton patiently waiting to open his "boxes".

Dayton guarding his boxes from Saige...who kept trying to peel wrapping paper off.

Dayton opening his new Ukelele and then tossing it aside.

Saige opened and played with the Ukelele.

A cool flashlight for Halloween night.

Some cool Halloween washcloths. Dayton demonstrating what they are used for. Tula inspecting.

Saige excited to see a book for her! She kept saying "book...book"

Dayton says "a cool tiger shirt"...and then tosses it aside...later saying that it was his favorite thing in the box. I'm still trying to figure out if it is for Dayton or Saige.

Dayton wearing his cool Tiger shirt and saying "take it off, the tag hurts".

Or is it a nightgown for Saige? She liked it too.

Nothing like a box of goodies from Ya-Ya...intentionally packed with peanuts I'm sure.

Thomas the Choo-Choo Train - repeated about 20x...he was SOOOOOO excited. The moment I was waiting for... Dayton has been requesting to go to this toy store that has a huge Thomas set up for ages, so occasionally we go and he plays for a little bit. Sometimes when I ask him what he wants to do that day, he asks to go there. So after much deliberation, we decided to get him a little set and I was so excited to see his reaction. For once we actually caught something on video.

The only Thomas picture I could get because he wouldn't stop moving around. He played with it for a LONG time. Long enough to go through one set of batteries!

Then it was cake time! Here is the cake that Dayton and I made. He mixed up food coloring with the icing and iced it himself. Then we added sparkles. He's into sparkles lately. Personally, I think he (we) did a pretty good job. Not quite what I imagined, but yummy just the same.

Three candles, one wish.

Now for the best part...EATING it. Of course wearing his "party hat" and using his "CARS" utensils and plates. Now why is it that he won't use utensils for any other meal, but for his cake and ice cream he did? Anyone have any theories?

That night before bed he said, "my had the best party mama." I smiled.

The next morning, he crawled into bed with me and like every grown up 3 year old, said, "thank you for coming to my party mama."

I laughed. I wouldn't have missed it for the world my baby (yes, you will always be my baby).

Some Funny Stories...

The past couple of days I've been meaning to write down some of the silly things the kids are doing and saying...before I forget...more so to have for them to read when they are older. I thought I would share them though because some of them are just too funny...well, funny to me at least.

Story 1:
Saige has been obsessed with baby wipes lately - she pulls them out constantly and walks around with them, wiping at her mouth, wiping furniture, wiping toys and even wiping her bottom (with clothes on of course). Her newest wiping craze is to walk around and look for dead bugs and pick them up in the wipe to bring to me...like a dog bringing its master some type of "prize". She's so proud of herself.

Story 2:
From the age of 7 months or so Saige has been getting into the pantry and pulling out snacks, jars, cans and anything else she can reach. As she has gotten older she has developed the skill of discrimination...so she knows to only get out those things that she would like to actually eat. Well, this morning I was getting Dayton's breakfast and she went into the pantry and got out pop tarts (which she has never even sampled I might add) and then she went into the kids "dish" drawer and got herself a plate. She carried both over to the kitchen table and put them up and then proceeded to climb onto the chair (she's never done that) and sat there saying "poptart". I was cracking up...her chin reaches the table, she's never even eaten a bite of a poptart and here she was preparing her own breakfast!

Story 3:
This morning Dayton opened the pantry and said he wanted "yucky charms" for breakfast. "My pour it myself" he said. I let him...the bag was almost empty and I'm pretty sure they were stale too. He didn't care. I got him out a "baby" bowl because it made more sense given the small amount of cereal...he says "no that's for babies", "my want big boy bowl." I told him to go get in his chair, started pouring his juice and was making my way over to the table when he said, "push the hurry up button on the remote." I knew exactly what he said because it was pretty clear, but I made him repeat himself because I was stunned! He's apparently been watching too much "Upside Down Show". Noggin parents will understand this story better than others. I'm still laughing about it! Maybe I need to start using that tactic to get him to listen.

Story 4:
So I bought Dayton some big boy undies with Halloween bats on them...I thought they were cute and I'm trying to get him excited about Halloween..rather than have him scared. Scott of course was like "what does he need Halloween underwear for?" Um, honey, have you checked out all of your holiday themed boxers lately? It's just something we women do...holiday themed undies, holiday themed shirts, dresses, clippies and PJ's. Anyhow, I was folding laundry after dinner and showed them to him and he was SO excited about them he wanted to take off his current pair and put the news ones on. I explained that it was almost time for bath/bed and that he could wear them the following day. He carried them around for the next 15 minutes and yelled at his sister every time she tried to take them..."no Daige, MY Hawwoween undies!" This morning the first thing he asked about was his halloween undies and then said "thank you mom".

Seems like I had a few more to share but that is all I can remember right now.

Oh the things little kids say and do....

What Happened To My Baby Girl?

Maybe since Dayton's 3rd Birthday is this coming Saturday...or maybe because Saige is now 15 months old...I'm kind of feeling a little bit like I woke up and my baby girl disappeared. It's like she grew up overnight. Her hair is getting longer, she's talking more, she's getting taller and starting to attempt her own "stunts" (like jumping off the bottom step and crashing every single time), she's developing a sassy little attitude and she is starting to resemble something that may be a foreshadow of a two year old! A possible early blossom? Hmmm.... Regardless, her sweet nature and almost always smiling face is truly a treasure in our lives. Dare I say I miss the nights where I held her quietly in the rocking chair listening to the little kitty cat noises she used to make?

An Evening Walk

Since it has been so hot lately, we decided to take an evening walk on the beach just before dinner last weekend. Sometimes I forget how nice it is to live so close to the beach...even a short walk down there refreshes your mind & spirit. The kids of course love it any time of day and these days it is nearly impossible to keep them out of the water.

Sometimes You Just Don't Learn From Your Mistakes

I'd rather spray you mom than water the plants like I'm supposed to.
How about I try spraying myself?
That was kind of cool, let me try again.
Ah..right up my nose..
And in my eyes...
And then I shake like the dog to get the water off my face...

Daddy's Gone Bald

Well, not really...he just got a really short haircut. No, not for locks of love or anything like that...but for some challenge/bet at work. The sacrifices one makes for work! When I heard the news I thought he would come home looking like Dr. Evil...not that it matters to me (hair grow back) but I was worried about how the kids would react. You just never know sometimes. Dayton just refused to touch it, saying it was "too pokey" and Saige enjoys rubbing it. So for now we are saving money since he uses less shampoo and won't need a haircut anytime soon...too bad though cause I was kind of getting used to the lightening bolts his stylist was shaving in his sideburns and I sure am going to miss that rat tail he has been growing.