Halloween Party

Imaginary Forces is fifteen years old! 

IF is the place where Ben and I first met in the summer of 2000, and also the home of many of our best friends and favorite memories. 

Since the anniversary is on Halloween, every year there is a costume competition and party.

How cool are these costumes? Have you ever seen a happier hot dog? Obviously, we have first place in the bag. 

And now for the whole family... Ta da! (Nice face, Peter.)

With each passing minute, the hamburger and hot dog became less and less happy. 

"What? It's a costume party."

Brett always has a great costume... Here he is as the guy from Operation. 

What is that hot dog thinking about? 

Here we are parading in front of the judges. I hope they don't take off points for crying.

These are the judges. Tough. 

Group pic that we couldn't be in due to crying. 

Third place! 

Second place! 

First place! Are you surprised it wasn't us?? Me, too. 

Thank you, Imaginary Forces, for a fun party and a good practice run in our costumes.

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Patch

This morning, Peter and I went to Mr. Bones Pumpkin Patch in West Hollywood. 

It was so hot and crowded, but that did not stop us from climbing into the pumpkins for some photos. 

"Cheese!" 

This doesn't look very comfortable, does it? 

Peter had lots of pumpkins to choose from to bring to the decoration booth. 

The most fun part was decorating. Peter chose to make a pirate pumpkin. 

What do you think?

The back is decorated with a spooky tree and bats. Cool!

The ABCs

Grandma Dorothy sent Clara this beautiful alphabet quilt with her name and birthdate on it. 

Clara loves it! Peter does, too. 

Clara is lucky to have an older brother to teach her the ABCs. 

Sunday Afternoon Photoshoot

Clara is seven months old now. 

She is such a happy baby. 

And very sweet.

Pretty cute, too. 

 And definitely a little crazy.

 

Peter's First Haircut

There are not many kids that make it til 2+ before they get their first hair cut, but since Peter didn't have hair until well into his second year of life, it seemed like a shame to cut it off.

He was starting to look a little bit like a ragamuffin.

It was hard for me to part with those curls around his ears.

This is what he looked like a year ago. See? No hair, yet. 

And this is yesterday...

We went to Lollicuts, a place I found online. 

Oh... and yes, Ben is wearing the same shirt as the pic from last Halloween. How embarrassing. 

"I don't know about this, Mom." 

"But my Jeep is pretty cool."

I'm not quite sure what the big red brush is all about, but I thought this was a cute picture of my little mister's new Wall Street style.

"Hmm... I kind of like my new look."

The best part? The grape lollipop. Thanks, Lollicut!

When do you think she'll have hair? 

He's Addicted...

...to peanut butter! 

Following the advice of my babygroup to try to get Peter to eat better, I let him participate in snack time by putting his own smear of peanut butter on apple slices. The theory being that if he is able to be part of preparing his meals, he'll be more interested in eating them. 

They were 100% right.

My new problem is that Peter will not eat a meal without putting peanut butter on everything. By himself.

Blueberry waffles with peanut butter? Delicious!

Japanese pear with peanut butter? Of course! 

A knifeful of straight-up peanut butter? The best! 

He wouldn't eat these pears two days ago. Today? The whole bowl, gone. 

"What are we having for dinner tonight, Mom?"

The neatest part of this whole thing is that he has to do his own peanut butter application. A two-year-old with a peanut butter covered knife? Clean up is awesome. 

Out for a Walk

We have been having a lot of fun exploring our neighborhood. There is a hilly, but fun one-mile loop that we have walked a couple of times. Check out this map to see the loop. 

It's a pretty good workout. There are some big hills! Thankfully, Peter doesn't like to go very fast. 

We always bring Peter's stroller, but most of the time he would rather walk. I'm sure that the one time we decide not to bring it, he'll decide he wants to ride.

"Hi, Dad!"