Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!

What a great season - I absolutely love Fall and I love Halloween! It is a great excuse to dress up (not that we need an excuse, we live in Portland where it would be totally normal to dress up any day of the year, haha!)

Last year, I got to pick the costumes (and the year before I was newly pregnant and sick so we went as farmers...) so this year it was Eric's turn. He chose for us to be characters from one of the coolest video games ever, Bastion!!!

Oh, what? You haven't heard of this game??? Well, it's awesome. Here are some pictures of the characters!

Aaron's character ... he's "the kid" (and the hammer's name is "Cale")

So, Aaron is "the kid", Eric is "Rucks" (the narrator), and I am "Zia" (the gypsy girl ... ignore Zulf, we didn't use him this Halloween)

On Friday night, we had the trunk-or-treat and it was bad and good ... we arrived and decided to eat before taking pictures (there was chili and cornbread) - mistake - Aaron choked on a piece of cornbread and threw up on his costume and on Eric's... so our pictures from Friday night aren't that great...

This is one of all of us (notice Aaron is wearing a sweater instead of pants???)

After dinner was the trunk-or-treat. To get ready, I set Aaron in the trunk. While I was preparing, he sat and played with the candy.

Then something awesome happened... a child came by and said "Trick-Or-Treat!" Aaron looked at the child who was holding out a bag ... and placed some candy inside! He received no direction from me ... he simply wanted to share... This happened again and again, for 15 minutes! Every once in a while he needed help but mostly he did it on his own!

 After we got home, Eric realized he should have been practicing mustache faces!

So, he did a few for me and I snapped pictures

On Saturday, while I was at rehearsal, Eric decided to shave his mustache...

To give you an idea of why, here is a video of him and Aaron riding an office chair on the way back from doing laundry while I was gone...

The 'stache doesn't really suit him, does it...?

Today, we had a few friends over to play some games. So Aaron and I made a cake...

I love kid-friendly cake batter!

We dressed up again to get full body shots for photos.

Happy Halloween from The Kid, Rucks, and Zia!

Mischievous Aaron

Aaron has been at the age for a while now where he gets into everything. He can open the fridge, start the dishwasher, open the dishwasher, open the oven, start the microwave, and open the microwave ... and that's just what he gets into in the kitchen!

Well, now he has added a new kitchen item.  I was lying down on my bed when I heard a clatter... I jumped up and found this:

The stroller was set up because he likes to push it around ... well he pushed it to the stove, tore the foil off the burners, and then pushed it to the sink to help with the dishes... silly kiddo!

Eric sent me this photo while I was at rehearsal on Thursday.

He captioned it, " I turn my back for one sec..."

Aaron thought it would be fun to dump out the file cabinet... *sigh* 

I didn't even know he could open the drawers!

I think Aaron misses being rocked (not that I don't try to rock him ... I think he just subconsciously misses it) because I often find him singing to himself in the rocking chair or drinking his milk...

 Today, none of us were feeling well ... so we all snuggled on the couch and watched a movie!

I am glad that Aaron was willing to lay with us and not get into trouble while we rested!

Why I Now Have to Password Protect My Computer... And Keep Our Bedroom Door Shut

Heaven help me when he learns to open doors with actual doorknobs and not just handles...

Gangnam Style

No, I did not teach him this step... He simply did it on his own.

If you don't know what he is dancing - go to youtube and type in Gangnam Style and it will all make sense...

A Scary Dream

I wish I remembered my happy dreams the way I do my scary ones ... then I'd post about them too to show you that I don't just have crazy nightmares!

In this dream, Eric and I were members of some crazy research team ... and we were being threatened. One day, at the grocery store, Aaron was snatched from our cart. One moment he was there, the next he was gone. We knew why ... it had to do with the research we were doing. But the research was too important to stop, so we, and our second child, went into hiding - with my friend Emily Bass... Not sure why she was with us, but I was definitely grateful for her help.

At one point in the dream, we had pin pointed Aaron's location and while on the phone with my dad, mentioned this and that we were going to get him back. We went to where he was supposed to be and he wasn't there my heart stopped and I dropped and cried ... that's when we figured out they were tapped into our phones. On the run again, we used some equipment from my dad's work to show that they were also tracking our GPS location (my second child was playing a game on my phone). We ditched the car and the phones and ran for it...

In an effort to get more money, Eric sold some blankets from our car. I desperately realized that one that had been sold was one my grandmother had made for Aaron ... I dashed back after the lady and paid her more for it than she paid us... it was too precious to lose, and what if we never found Aaron? I needed to keep things that had belonged to him!

Another portion of the dream had us walking through a crowded street. Every time someone touched me or my family, I would shove them, fearing that they were after us... It wasn't long before our fears were confirmed. A creature jumped out at us and I yelled to Emily who was carrying our child to RUN as Eric and I tackled this strange being to the ground. Upon further inspection, we realized the creature was a person that had been surgically altered - and we recognized the markings of one of our colleagues in the surgical stitches. We knew where Aaron was.

We ran in and torched the front door. After breaking in our colleague took us directly to him - he was hidden inside a table. We looked at him and knew he was Aaron though he did not look like Aaron any more. They had begun the process of changing him - his skin was stretched and ready to be re-molded in a new way. We found his chart and they had prepared to give him "birth defects" so that his medical history would be so different that no one would ever connect him to us... Others in the room doubted that he was our Aaron, but I tickled his collar bone and he giggled even though he was heavily medicated ... and I gave him tomatoes, his favorite food and he gobbled them up. We knew he belonged with us. We set up an appointment with another surgeon to begin reconstructing him. The surgeon was uncertain as to whether he would ever look the same and we told her it didn't matter, we were just grateful to have him back.

I was blessed to wake up with Aaron in my arms. He had woken early and we fell back asleep while snuggling on the couch.  I know that no matter what he looks like or what he may do in the future, I will always be grateful to have him.

Aaron's Ridiculous Cuteness

Aaron was simply being cute today and we caught a lot of it with our phones :)

Seriously ... I will probably never throw away another box ... Aaron has so much fun with them!

To tickle Aaron, I use a finger on his collar bone ... and this is the response he gives. I love it!

We took Aaron for a ride in the rain ... I took too long getting out my phone. He giggled for quite some time!

Shopping

Some days when we go shopping, Aaron is looking at everything, pointing at the things on the shelves declaring "PLEASE!" and "This, this, THAT!!!" Sometimes he waves and smiles at everyone and slowly gets frustrated when they don't notice... And other times, he just chills... and eats his goldfish.

What a goofball!

Pumpkin Carving!

Can you tell who carved which pumpkin? Haha!

Eric did such a good job making his creepy!!!

Here they are out on our porch :)

The Beard

Since our Pumpkin Patch post, I have gotten one question many many times and I thought it would be good to address it here.

The question is: What is up with Eric's beard, and do I like it?

Well folks, believe it or not, the beard was my idea ... haha!

Here's some background on the beard. Last year, I got to choose our Halloween costumes, so this year it is Eric's turn. He has chosen some spectacular costumes ... but his costume requires longer hair and a crazy sick mustache. He was thinking we would get a wig and draw on the mustache but I told him he could totally grow it... he had tried growing his facial hair out in the past but it never worked so he was skeptical, but I was confident his hair would grow. (Why was I confident, you may find yourself asking ... I have no idea) And here we are!

Now, do I like it? That is a tough question. I think it is extremely attractive... and it makes him look much older (aka, makes him look more his age), but I also love him without it. If he decides to grow it again, he'll have to start from scratch after Halloween (other wise he'll look like a creepy pedophile running around with just a mustache) and he'll keep it shorter than it is now.

So, there you have it...

Pumpkin Patch

This year, since we live near so many farms, we decided to go to a pumpkin patch and pick out our own pumpkins rather than buy them at the store (so far each year we have done something new... first year we carved ones we grew ourselves, last year was store bought, and this year is farm purchased!).

Aaron fell asleep in the car on the way there so at first he wasn't terribly animated... but then he saw the ponies and the tractor ... and he took off running!

I like how he looks for me after I leave again

Aaron played a large role in picking our pumpkins

He ran around saying, "BALL! BALL!" and trying to pick them up

 So Eric helped him hold one

He kept trying to go back to the tractor

There were some super cute chicks... Aaron was so gentle and petted them so sweet...

 And ... he tried to kiss them...

We had so much fun!

We'll carve the pumpkins on Monday - I'll post pictures when they are done!