Tigger!

We took our little Tigger to downtown McKinney's Scare on the Square for some trick or treating. Alas, the lines were long and our patience was short, so we walked around looking at the firetrucks and the police motorcycles. We ran into Tigger's old friend Pooh, but Tigger didn't recognize him and tried to get away.


In the end, Tigger ended up with a rock and a few assorted nuts in his pumpkin. Afterward it was home for bath and bed. I sat outside on our bench with the bowl of candy for the trick or treaters, since our doorbell is still broken (two weeks after the electrical storm) and it was a nice night out. The best visit was from a tiny little toddler dressed up as a fairy, who walked up and started giving me the candy out of her little bucket. I put it all back when she wasn't looking, plus a Tootsie Roll.

Downward Pup?

The world looks different upside down...

Fruits and Veggies

Matthew loves his applesauce, carrots and sweet peas. They are even better in his special bowl from Granny!

Vespas

Yes, we have wasps in the house. Flying down the chimney, apparently. The one that has been sitting on the window was a paper wasp, as Keith the Bug Dude told me, and the huuuuuge yellow ones we found in the kitchen are called cicada killers, although they are nothing to worry about. He also identified the dead spider in James' garage as a house spider. It crumbled when he picked it up, so clearly it's been deceased for some time. I also told him about our little brown lizards that show up at night and he said they were house geckos - bug eaters

Given it's pretty damn cold outside these past two days, I may just have to get the fire going in the living room and drive the wasps out - the recommended course of action by the bug guy, since the only other alternative is opening a chemical bomb and having everyone abandon the house for a few hours, which I'd really prefer not to do, since Matthew and Annmarie are in the house all day. Then it's off to find a place that installs fireplace doors. :-)

Yee haw, indeed.

Today we (that is, Matthew and Penny - James is in Mexico City with his SMU buddies right now) went to Roundup on the Range, just 15 minutes or so from our house, with Amy and Jaime and their daughter Sofie, who's 6 weeks older than Matthew and was sporting her pretty pink cowboy boots. Matthew looked decidedly handsome in his "New Sheriff in Town" T-shirt - the only remotely Western thing he owns. Of course, I forgot to bring the camera and the camcorder, but thankfully Jaime did not. :-)

(check out the too-short jeans Matthew is wearing - the only ones that fit him around the waist are about an inch too short - if they fit him lengthwise, the waist is too big and they fall down when he runs around, which is funny to watch but not funny when he trips over them and bawls.)

We saw a herding dog exhibit, US Marshalls, a chuckwagon cook-off, a petting zoo, lots of Western saddles and a band that we know, The Ackermans, play a few songs. We went into the petting zoo and, true to form, Matthew refused to pet anything but attempted to kiss everything. Then he and Sofie ran around in the chuckwagon field and climbed on haybales. They traded toy cars. Sofie tried being friendly but Matthew wasn't interested. He mostly wanted to push his stroller, of course - that's pretty much what he wants to do to anything with wheels, including the stagecoach that went by and the ice cream truck. And he didn't freak out when Jaime picked him up, which I fully expected him to do. It was hilarious - he just gave Jaime a look like, "Who the hell are you? Ahhh... who cares?" and was happy to be carried over to the stage area.

We got home at 1:15 or so, which is normally naptime, so I quickly fed him lunch and whipped him upstairs. He slept from 2:15 to 5:00 when I woke him up, so he wouldn't be too out of whack on his sleep schedule. We had a quick errand to run then it was home for dinner and bedtime. We are both pretty tired tonight!

more stuff, as if we need any.

After our normal Sunday morning food shop (one of the advantages of not going to church), we piled back into the Xterra and headed to Ikea to pick up a boy-sized table and chair set - the ever popular Svala kind. We ended up buying that, plus a tunnel and tent, a toy train set, a red plastic chair and a patterned rug for his room - it has roads he's supposed to run his toy cars over.



Want to paint the table with a chalkboard top - no idea when I'll find the time, though.

Haircut #2

Went for haircut #2 today - it didn't go any better than haircut #1 did, unfortunately. He was okay for the first 10 seconds and then cried the whole time, even though Lupe was sweet and tried to distract him. He was having none of it! Both he and James were covered with little blond curls when she was done. He didn't like the clippers or the blow dryer either.

Afterwards we took him to Gabe Nesbitt Community Park so he could play on the jungle gym for a while (of course, it said no one under 5 but we ignored that.) He mainly wanted to run around in the field and play with his car, so it didn't matter anyway. Had to keep an eye out for errant Little League balls too, since there were a couple games going on.

Afterward we took a drive around Craig Ranch's Ballfields and ended up at Boston's Pizza for lunch. Matthew wasn't too interested in his quesadillas and carrot sticks, but he did eat a packet of Saltines, so there is that. He was in a flinging mood, so we had to chase down all his stuff that got thrown around the restaurant. Good thing it wasn't crowded!

We are thinking about going to the Heard Museum this afternoon since the weather is finally nice out - around 75-80 degrees and very pleasant. The museum is going to have its Dinosaurs Alive exhibit again starting next week so we may take him to that again. Last year, he didn't even notice them at all - hopefully he won't be scared by them this year. We shall see...

18 Months - Already!

Matthew had his 18 month well baby (or is it well kid?) appointment on Thursday. He's 33" tall (70th percentile again) and 24 pounds (30th percentile). Finally triple his birth weight at 18 months. It was tough to measure his head circumference due to the ENORMOUS goose egg he gave himself this morning. Running over to his little hiding place in the living room, he tripped over his own feet and smacked his forehead on the windowsill. Poor thing! A minute or two of tears and he was tearing around the kitchen again, right as rain.

He got his last Hep A shot, as well as a flu shot, which should cover him for any more vaccinations until his next visit at 2 years. He wasn't thrilled about Dr. Suzanne - as soon as she started coming towards him, his little lip began to tremble and he started to pout and cry. Guess he remembered what came next!

The Great Pumpkin

We went to a pumpkin patch yesterday - the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm. Matthew spent most of the time lifting pumpkins, trying to push the wagons and pointing at the dirt. He was unimpressed with the tractor pulling the hayride, was ambivalent about the goats and sheep, and was scared of the cows. Those big long horns looked like they would hurt!