It's the most wonderful time of the year ...

Hello friends and family!  I thought I would squeeze in a quick peak of our holiday season.  Cael got an early start on decorating our tree.

His Christmas ornament, however, was only in one piece for about 3 minutes ... please note the broken hose.

Cael made a visit to see Santa but this skeptical face ...

... should have been an indicator that our time with Santa would look like this (Zac and I did not plan to be in this picture):

Cael has also had so much fun with holiday activities at school!  This cool hat that he sported over pancakes today is a very good example of the holiday excitement that's been building:

But Cael's favorite part of the holiday season has been his daily exploration of our Christmas tree ... he loves walking around the tree and identifying all of the ornaments at his eye level.

The excitement of the Big Day started to build tonight as Cael dug into his stocking which was waiting under the tree when we got home from church.

New tub toys are always fun ...

... and that plane is really cool ...

... as are all of the Australian animals (especially the snakes!)!

Christmas Eve was capped off with a little treat before bed (unfortunately for Scrappy, Cael was not willing to share his pretzels).

Zac and I are very excited to see what he thinks of this scene in the morning (do you like my use of plastic table cloths for wrapping?) ...

... oh, and then there's this which should also be fun ... it's about time our son got his first tent :)

We've loved the fun of this holiday season but above and beyond all of the ornaments and cookies and shopping has been the greatest joy ... the celebration of our salvation through the birth of a sweet, tiny baby ... Happy Birthday, Jesus!

Ultimate Tug of War

Cael and Scrappy currently have a relationship that runs very hot and cold.  For example, whenever Cael has food in hand, Scrappy can usually be found within 6 inches of him.  In one moment he is furious with her for invading his space, pointing his little finger at her and scolding her with "SO SAD!"  The next moment he's happily sharing his snack with her.

The same can be said for Scrappy as she is Cael's best friend when he's in the kitchen or the pantry (since there's a good chance she might score some food) but really wants nothing to do with him anywhere else in the house.

It appears, however, that our two littlest family members recently discovered another form of bonding:  tug of war.

Scrappy has always been a fan of playing tug and Cael loves messing with her so it seems like the perfect mutually enjoyable activity.  Enjoy the little glimpse of our current favorite form of entertainment!

p.s.  don't judge me for the enormous basket of laundry ... it will be folded ... eventually ...

It was a Halloween miracle ...

Last year as we prepared for Halloween, Cael certainly seemed to like the idea of the holiday.

His feelings, however, changed as soon as it came time to sport his costume.

In fact, we only had a cooperative puppy when he finally went to sleep.

This year I thought we would have an easier time with the costume since we could talk about it with Cael.  We first tried a monkey costume that we thought would be an easy winner since Cael really likes monkeys and carries one to bed with him each night.  We were wrong.  He was hysterical during his brief time in the monkey costume and now will only walk by the costume and point at it.

We thought that a firefighter costume would be a great idea because Cael loves fire trucks.  After showing him the new costume and seeing that we was not interested at all in being a firefighter, we decided that we needed to "sell" him on the firefighter idea.

We decided that firefighter books were the way to go.  We smoothly introduced a few new stories into his rotation that allowed us to talk at length about firefighters putting on their hats, coats and boots.  We tried the costume again ... he immediately removed the hat, cried as soon as the boots were on and wouldn't even get near the jacket.

We continued reading and talking about firefighters over the next few days but suddenly it was 10/30 and we were not any closer to getting him in the costume.  I had to step up my game and I decided what better way than to sport a similar costume myself.

This idea resulted in me serving Cael breakfast while wearing my raincoat, Cael's firefighter hat and my rain boots (they're leopard print which made for quite the finishing touch on the look).  He was very intrigued by the overall look but immediately started pulling the rain coat off me as soon as he got out of his high chair.

My desperation to get him in his costume was good for a laugh and I finally gave up knowing that he would have a good time regardless of what he decided to wear.

We showed up at Cael's school this afternoon for his parade and party and waited for him to appear wearing a t-shirt and sneakers.  We finally caught a glimpse of him and saw ...

BOOTS!

A few more seconds passed and there he was ...

Our little fire fighter was fully dressed ... it was a Halloween miracle!

All it took was the patience of Cael's 2 wonderful teachers and the gentle nudge of interest that resulted from watching all of his buddies put on costumes.  He had a great time at his parade and party but the real fun was going to be an evening of trick-or-treating with Grayson!

Grayson was an adorable golfer!

Cael's initial interest was only in pushing around the truck that he decided to bring along.

But he finally started following Grayson around and found himself warming up to the idea of trick-or-treating.

He truly enjoyed the evening and walked all over our neighborhood collecting candy, saying "thank you" and STILL WEARING HIS COSTUME!!!

It was a very Happy Halloween in Denton!

Fastforward to Fall

Wow ... how is it almost November?!  Our first 3 months in Denton have flown by and all is well in North Texas.  The time with family has been amazing and it's so fun to see Cael enjoy his grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.  The stress of balancing our work travel schedules has essentially disappeared because life is SO MUCH EASIER with the helping hands of family in the area.

Cael is doing really well ... he loves his school and is into new activities every day.  Below are a few of Cael's favorites at 20 months:
Foods:  Freeze-dried fruit is at the top of the list but he's also a big fan of Pirate's Booty and crunchy snacks of all types.
Activities:  Anything and everything that he can do outside:  climbing, running, riding, playing, digging, and picking up gross things to hand to mommy.   
Books:  The "tractor book" which features pictures of every mode of transportation.  He has become quite an expert at identifying everything from helicopters to combines (I've learned a lot too).
Toys:  Cael's stuffed monkey is now an integral part of his existence, at least when it's bed time.  He's a big fan of vehicles right now too and usually has a truck of some sort in his hands.
Words:  NO!!! (we just loved the introduction of that word!)  Airplane, truck and puppy are in regular rotation too.

He's a very busy little guy and has had a full fall so far.  We've had a few chances to explore the Metroplex and started with a trip to the Ft. Worth Children's Museum.

Cael enjoyed grocery shopping ...

and he trotted around to check out all of the exhibits.

We also visited the Dallas World Aquarium which is so much more than just an aquarium.  We saw birds, monkeys, otters, reptiles, bugs and a few fish, of course:

I think the flamingos won out as Cael's favorite attraction that day.

We got into the spirit of the fall season with a trip to the Dallas Arboretum.  My parents took Janice, Grayson, Cael and me to see what 40,000 beautifully displayed pumpkins looked like and we loved it!

The pumpkin architecture was very impressive ...

... and on the other side of each pumpkin palace ...

... was a new and exciting pumpkin discovery.

 

 



Cael explored mountains of pumpkins ...

... and had fun playing with his cousin.

This face pretty much summed up Cael's opinion of the Arboretum pumpkin village:

We also enjoyed the beautiful Chihuly Glass Exhibit throughout the Arboretum.

It was a perfect day but the pumpkin fun didn't end there ... we still had to get Cael to the pumpkin patch before Halloween.  Last year our little guy was initially skeptical about all of the orange gourds ...

... but he ended up having a wonderful time.

This year Cael got to work inspecting the pumpkins ...

... moving a few around ...

... and finally deciding on a couple that were a little more his size.

Cael also had fun checking out the teepee ...

... and climbing on the hay bales.

But Cael's FAVORITE part of the day was his time spent checking out the tractors!  He loved looking at them while they were parked ...

... while they were towing hay rides ...

... and while they were pulling trains.

Our day at the pumpkin patch was definitely more about the tractors than it was about the pumpkins as you can see by the following example of what Cael did every time he saw a tractor.

All of these adventures exploring the Metroplex have led to some solid nights of sleep for Cael ... this is one of my favorite shots of our fully exhausted little guy ... sweet dreams!

Home, TOTALLY SWEET, Home!

I am posting this blog as a new resident of Denton, TX.  For those of you not familiar with this part of the world, Denton is on the north side of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex.  We're actually just as close to the Oklahoma state line as we are to downtown Dallas.  Denton is home to the University of North Texas "Mean Green."  And yes, my Pittsburgher family members, I'm just down the street from Mean Joe Greene's alma mater.

I don't know much other trivia about Denton but I do know that this is where we're supposed to be right now and it feels great to be "home." 

The past month and a half was wild and crazy.  We had a week to pack our home in Bulverde.  We took over my generous parents' place for a couple of weeks while we waited for our new house to be ready.  We enjoyed all of the fun that is associated with two house closings, packing, moving, living out of suitcases, home renovation, upending a toddler's schedule, looking for childcare, cleaning, unpacking.  Pictures documenting most of that stuff would not be fun so we'll just wrap up that whole experience with this one happy shot:

Every minute of stress and craziness was well worth it as we are so happy to be exactly where we are right now. 

We are close to our family (my parents are less than 10 minutes away!!!) which is such a blessing ... it's so fun to see them without needing to plan a full visit and it is very comforting to know that we have help when we need it (which has already happened, of course!).  We are excited that Cael has most of his grandparents and all of his aunts, uncles and cousins within an hour's drive!

We love our new home.  We were so sad to leave our house in the Hill Country but we found a place that is just what we need in so many ways.  Life in suburbia isn't as bad as we thought it would be and close proximity to Target is always a good thing :)

Cael is in an awesome little school.  It broke my heart to leave the wonderful teachers and friends that he had at Little Oaks but we found a school that he enjoys and where he is loved for being the sweet little kid that he is.

Speaking of Cael, our guy is on the move and into something new every day.  He's trying many new foods (not including vegetables, of course).  His new favorite restaurant is Rosa's ... he's quite a fan of tacos and he loves honey and tortillas:

He has finally come to appreciate my family's traditional pasta sauce with Italian tuna.  My grandmother would not be impressed with my use of Prego for my base sauce but I think she'd get over that once she saw this face:

Cael and Scrappy have found lizard hunting to be a mutually enjoyable activity.  Cael has quite an eye for spotting lizards on our screens in the evening:

Scrappy is a pretty good spotter too:

Scrappy does not really like Cael's "tag team" approach to this activity ...

... but he's pretty persistent about this being time that they spend together ...

... regardless of the personal space that she preferes to keep.

Did I mention that this kid is a mountain climber in the making?

We're having a good time finding new favorites and settling into our home.  Zac, both lizard hunters and I would love to see you if you ever find yourself in our new neighborhood!