Pumpkin Carving

Barrett has been ready to carve the pumpkin ever since he and Daddy picked it out at the pumpkin patch.

Barrett was so excited when I told him it was time yesterday afternoon.

He was sitting next to the pumpkin as I carved the hole in the top, and he couldn't contain himself. He sat there with his "green shovel" in his hand ready to clean it out.

Then, he saw the inside.



That is as close to the pumpkin as his green shovel got. Barrett wanted no part of the big mess that was in the pumpkin, but he liked watching me clean it out. (Just like every other mess!)

After I finished carving the pumpkin, Barrett just sat next to him and clapped.

He was so happy to have his own "pumpkin face" as he called it.

He is going to have so much fun tonight trick or treating!

The Beach

Barrett has been looking forward to going to the beach and playing in the water for a long time. Yesterday, he finally got to go.

My family was getting together at a beach house, so after church, we headed to Surfside.

Barrett was so excited when we got there. He was ready to go straight to the beach, but we convinced him we had to go into the house and say hi to all the cousins.

The weather couldn't have been better, and Barrett's expression as he saw the waves and the sand was priceless.

He ran straight to the water, but then he wasn't too sure.

After he adjusted to the way the water and sand felt, he was ready for Daddy to take him in the water.

While Daddy and Barrett were WAY out in the water jumping waves, I let Fisher put his feet in the sand and water. He really did not like it. He held his feet out of it as much as he could.

When Daddy and Barrett were coming back in from the water, Barrett was so excited to tell me all about the big waves. I don't think I have ever seen him run that fast.

Cousin Austin decided that it was time to dig in the sand, so he borrowed a shovel from a man nearby on the beach.

I went to Doug's truck and got his big shovel, and everyone enjoyed watching Doug and Austin dig big holes to bury the big kids in.

Even Barrett who doesn't like to get dirty wanted to help bury people.

Overall, Barrett's first experience at the beach when he could actually play was a HUGE success.

As we drove home, Doug was trying to figure out when we are going to rent a beach house for a week next summer. I think Daddy had as much fun as Barrett did.

Chef Barrett

Last week at school, Barrett learned about cooking in the kitchen.

On Thursday when I picked him up, he was excited to show me his cook's hat he wore. I thought it was so cute that I promised him we could make cookies when we got home so he could wear it again.



Here is my little chef baking his cookies.







He was so proud of his sprinkled cookies!

The Window

If today is any indicator, I am pretty sure that Fisher is going to love being outside as much as his brother and daddy.

Fisher spent close to an hour at the back window today looking outside. He would stand up, look outside, "talk", lick the window, and then play with farm animals for a few minutes only to repeat the process over and over again.


When I went up beside him and looked out the window, he got so excited. I'm not sure what we were looking at, but he was thrilled that I was seeing it too.





My next move did not make him happy at all. He was so funny licking the window that I wanted a picture from outside looking in at him.

He was not amused at all that I went outside without him, and he never even blinked so the licking picture didn't happen.


I did make it up to him by taking him for walk a few minutes later, but when we got home, he went right back to the window.

Throwing in His Two Cents

Since Barrett's has mastered talking, he now likes to yap every moment that he's not asleep.

Here are a few examples of things he says:

We were driving through McDonald's to get the apples that he had to have. I pulled up to the window and the boy working reached his hand out and said, "$1.07." As I handed him the money, Barrett loudly and clearly said, "That man did not say hello, that is not nice. He is not a nice man."

We were stopped at a stop light, and Barrett noticed a bird sitting on a sign right next to us. His conversation with the bird went like this, "Hi birdie. Are you happy birdie? Do you fly? Please don't poop on Mommy's windows. That's yucky. Oh-no, you fly away."

I was getting ready to take Barrett to school yesterday,and since I wasn't feeling well at all, I didn't mess with fixing my hair. I just threw on a baseball hat. When I walked out of my room to take him to school, Barrett said, "Mommy, are you sick?" I told him I was fine. He corrected me and said, "No Mommy, you don't feel good." I again tried to lie to him and say I felt fine, but he said, "Mommy, you are wearing a hat, so you are sick." He's an observant little guy.

And my recent favorite...

Doug was asking Barrett what he was going to say on Halloween, and Barrett replied, "Trick or treat, give me something to eat, CANDY!"

Doug and I started laughing, and asked him who taught him that because we'd only worked on the trick or treat part. He tried to change the subject and ignore our questions, but after a while he realized we weren't giving up. Since he apparently didn't want to tell on Nana and Paw, he smiled an evil grin and said the person that taught him that was, "Santa Claus."

It's almost like he knew we couldn't get in touch with Santa. :)

Where's Daddy?

After taking their bath with Daddy last night, both boys were following Daddy everywhere he went.

Doug was trying to replace the air filter, and he kept having to ask for help because his helpers were in the way.

When Daddy went into the garage to put the old filter in the trash, I had to yell at him to not open the door because it was blocked...

Barrett and Fisher LOVE their Daddy!

All About the Fisher Man

Fisher has been keeping me so busy lately that sitting down to type is a luxury I just don't have anymore.

He cut his top two teeth this past week. The top left came in last Saturday, and the top right came in on Tuesday. You can't see them very well yet, but you can feel them. You can really feel them when they sink into your shoulder!

Fisher is also on the move at all times. He will crawl all over the house and pull up on any and everything he finds. He even managed to get on the couch the other night. Doug and I still don't know how he did it even though we were both sitting there.

His other favorite thing besides moving is screaming and talking.

Barrett loves this too, so it is quite normal for the boys to be screaming back and forth while laughing. It's cute to a point, but on a long drive, it sucks.

Fisher had managed to say a few things. As much as I hate to admit it, he has mastered, "Dada." I'd like to say he just knows the sound and not what he's saying, but when Daddy is around, he says, "Dada," a lot.

Luckily for me, he did finally say, "Mama," with LOTS of coaching/bribing on Thursday. It's amazing what this kid will do for food.

The other big news in Fisher's world is that he no longer wants anything to do with baby food. He wants to eat whatever we have. We have yet to find a food that he spits out. He even liked my broccoli the other day!

Ok, that's all the time I have to type because his afternoon "nap" apparently has ended.

Does 20 minutes even count as a nap?

Time Out

Lately, Barrett has spent a lot of time in time out.

He loves to play with his brother, but he also loves to push his brother over.

This morning, I was switching a load of laundry when I heard Fisher start to cry. When I ran into the living room, Fisher was on his back in the middle of the room crying, and Barrett was already in the corner.

(Is it wrong that I think he looks so cute standing in the corner?)

When I asked Barrett why he was in time out, he said, "Fisher is crying."

I asked him if he pushed his brother, and he said, "No, Fisher fell over."

I had to explain to him that he only had to go to time out when he hurt his brother not when his brother hurt himself.

Later on, Fisher fell over trying to stand up on the couch, and Barrett said, "I don't go to time out. Fisher fell all by himself."

How long do you think it will take Barrett to figure out that he could claim he didn't do it when he actually did?

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We're Back!

Even though I haven't been able to post due to technical difficulties, you're probably glad I couldn't. All that you would have heard about is Fisher being sick, Barrett being sick, and me being sick.

Fisher was first. He started with a fever and bad mood. Two days later, Barrett was running a fever too. The following morning, I woke up sick.

We all three apparently had some virus that mainly just causes a fever.

Fisher ran a fever for about a week, but besides that, he was his usual self. The only real impact him being sick had on us was that he slept through the night. Luckily, he's fever has been gone for quite a few days, and he's still sleeping at night. :)

Barrett wasn't as lucky as Fisher. He ended up with gunk in his lungs, diagnosed as pneumonia, and had to do the whole breathing treatment thing along with a bunch of meds. He loved the breathing treatment mask. He would wear it around the house and call it his costume. Somehow he also ended up with ringworm on his back , so we treated that too.

I ended up feeling the worst of the bunch. I had the fever thing and pneumonia, but I also got to enjoy pleurisy. My doctor was convinced that if I would just rest, I would feel better. (She doesn't have any children, much less two sick ones.) Once my doctor loaded me up on steroids, antibiotic, and vicodin, I've been feeling better and better.

Now we are all well, and Barrett is at school today. If I could just convince Fisher to take a nap, I might actually try to tackle the mountain of laundry.